Conversation Analytic Study Research Articles

Power Differentials in the Counseling Relationship: A Conversation Analytic Study on Goal-Setting Meetings in a Clubhouse Mental Health Rehabilitation Community

We used conversation analysis to examine social support in a Clubhouse mental health rehabilitation community. We focused on goal-setting meetings, which is a very specific equality-promoting group counseling setting in which professionals and clients provide peer support to each other. We asked how the professionals commented on the clients’ goals and presented their own goals during the activity, pointing to the practices of affiliation that nonetheless served to construct and maintain power imbalances between the professionals and clients. Although the idea of casting group counseling as peer support is motivated by an attempt to foster equality at the level of group interaction, our analysis shows that such organization tends to invoke other inequalities that may be even deeper than the ones with which the participants begin.

COVID-19 telephone contact tracing in Flanders as a “contested” new genre of conversation: Discrepancies between interactional practice and media image

During the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium, most COVID-19-related information was communicated to the public through mainstream media such as newspaper outlets, television, and radio. These media had substantial influence over which information was (widely) distributed and how this information was framed, subsequently shaping citizens' interpretations of matters concerning the pandemic. This chapter considers one of the government's endeavors to contain the pandemic: COVID-19 telephone contact tracing. Specifically, we compare the image of such telephone contact tracing generated by the media with the de facto interactional practice. We report on analyses made as part of a 1 year applied conversation analytic and pragmatic study conducted at Ghent University and the University of Antwerp in collaboration with the Flemish Agency of Health and Care. Methodologically, we use thematic content analysis to examine the portrayal of COVID-19 telephone contact tracing in widespread Flemish newspapers and its evolution throughout the pandemic. We then compare this media analysis to our analysis of a corpus of 170 recorded, transcribed, and interactionally analyzed contact tracing calls. Our results demonstrate how the mainstream media's image of contact tracing does not align with the various (interactional) functions of COVID-19 contact tracing calls identified in the study. We argue that this one-sided, distorted image produced by the media may have had considerable consequences for the efficacy of contact tracing, especially because the contact tracing call was a new genre of conversation. It was introduced to the public almost exclusively through mainstream media and, at the same time, its success relied for the most part on citizens' voluntary participation, trust, and willingness to share private information.

Constructing Childhood in Social Interaction: How Parents Assert Epistemic Primacy over Their Children

While people are generally considered as having primary rights to know and describe themselves, in parent–child interaction, young children are not always treated as having primary access to and sole authority over matters within their own domain. Drawing on naturally occurring parent–child interactional data, this conversation analytic study shows how parents claim epistemic primacy over young children with respect to matters that, based on norms of adult interaction, should be unequivocally presupposed within children's primary epistemic domain. Two forms of evidence are provided: (1) parents confirm or disconfirm children's asserted claims about their own sensations, thoughts, or experiences; and (2) parents use test questions to request information within children's domain and then evaluate their answers as correct or incorrect. These practices indicate an orientation to young children's reduced rights to claim epistemic autonomy. I argue that this is one way through which childhood is constructed in social interaction.

“Ik neem dat niet terug”

“I won’t take that back” A conversation analytical study of Members of Parliament’s responses to the President’s requests to withdraw statements Discussions about what may and may not be said in the Dutch House of Representatives are more relevant than ever: both within the parliament and in the media. There is a heated debate going on about transgressive language use and the role of the President of the House when boundaries are crossed. This conversation-analytical study addresses sequences in which the President of the House requests Members of Parliament and Members of Government to take back their words. The analysis is based on thirteen such requests in debates that took place in the Plenary Hall over the past ten years. The analysis shows that the basic sequence involves the President of the House’s judgement of the inappropriate words (pre) that does not lead to withdrawing. This is followed by an explicit request, which is granted or not. Regularly, the judgment is enough to lead to a withdrawal or implicit or explicit refusal. Although requests to take back words are regularly granted, they are nearly always treated as problematic by the addressee. Politicians avoid positioning themselves as someone who is quick to change their mind and therefore problematise the request to take back words. The President of the House may resort to interactional sanctions other than those described in the Rules of Procedure.

Introducing the C-reactive protein point-of-care test: A conversation analytic study of primary care consultations for respiratory tract infection

The C-reactive protein point-of-care test (CRP-POCT) can help distinguish between viral and bacterial infection and has been promoted as a strategy to improve antimicrobial stewardship. The test is widely used in Sweden. National guidelines advocate conservative use in primary care consultations with patients presenting with symptoms of respiratory tract infection (RTI). Previous research suggests low adherence to guidelines. We provide new insights into the communication surrounding the CRP-POCT by documenting how the decision to administer the test is interactionally motivated and organized in Swedish primary care. The data consists of video-recordings of RTI-consultations. A CRP-POCT was performed in nearly two thirds of the consultations and our study is focused on a subset where the test is ordered by a medical doctor. We find that doctors order the test during the transition from or after physical examination, a practice that aligns with national guidelines. Guidelines indicate that pathological findings from physical examination are warrants for ordering the test but we only found one example where this was communicated to the patient. A more prevalent pattern was that doctors ordered the CRP-POCT even though the outcome of the physical examination was assessed as normal. Our analyses of these show that doctors can provide the rationale for ordering the test in subtle ways and that failure to provide a rationale is treated as a noticeable absence. We also find that the CRP-POCT can be used to reconcile the contrast between the normal physical examination and the patient's problem presentation. Doctors can also order the test in ways that position the CRP-POCT as criterial for antibiotic prescription. Consultations where the patients described the symptoms as particularly severe and/or persistent were more likely to engender elaborate accounts than consultations where patients presented their symptoms as less problematic.

Brief opportunistic interventions by general practitioners to promote smoking cessation: A conversation analytic study

Very brief opportunistic interventions for smoking cessation are effective, cost-saving for health systems, and universally recommended in guidelines. However, evidence suggests that clinicians are reluctant to intervene, citing interactional difficulties. Only one UK study has specifically examined smoking discussions, within naturally occurring primary care consultations. However smoking cessation treatment was not available at the time. We examined existing datasets amounting to 519 video-recordings of GP consultations in England for instances of talk about smoking. We used conversation analytic methods to assess patients' responses to doctors asking about smoking, giving advice on smoking, and offering cessation treatment. In 31 recordings it was apparent that the patient smoked, and, in 25/31 consultations, doctors initiated the topic of smoking. They did so by asking about smoking status, commonly during the history-taking phase of the consultation. In many instances, these questions led to active resistance from patients against being placed in a discreditable category, for example by minimising their smoking. This was more pronounced when GPs pursued efforts to quantify the amount smoked. Thereafter, where doctors returned to the topic of smoking, they did so typically by linking smoking to the patient's medical condition, which likewise led to resistance. Guidance recommends that GPs advise on how best to quit smoking where patients are interested in doing so, but this was only evident in a minority of consultations. Where GPs offered support for cessation, they did so using interactional practices that minimised the need for the patient to respond and thereby accept. Interactional difficulties were found to be common in consultations between GPs and people who smoke when GPs actions aligned with some VBA guidelines. Future research should examine when and how advice on how best to quit, and offers of support, should be delivered within primary care consultations.

Japanese turn-finaltteyuuas a formulation device

AbstractThis paper offers a conversation analytic study of the Japanese turn-final constructiontteyuuas a conversational practice of formulation.Tteyuuis normally used in clausal noun modification, being placed between its preceding clausal component and a following head noun. However,tteyuualso appears to be employed utterance-finally without a following head noun. Through microanalysis of mundane conversation data, this study documents a previously unstudied aspect of the turn-finaltteyuuas a formulation device. This study especially focuses on how informing recipients utilizetteyuuformulations to summarize or explicate the gist of some part of their conversations, while indicating their high degree of epistemic access to the formulated information. Furthermore, this research examines what conversation participants accomplish by mobilizing this particular type of formulations. This study aims to contribute to the research of formulation by unveiling how a language-specific item can be deployed as a resource for turn-constructional formatting of formulation.

People with aphasia and their family members proposing joint future activities in everyday conversations: A conversation analytic study.

In everyday conversations, a person with aphasia (PWA) compensates for their language impairment by relying on multimodal and material resources, as well as on their conversation partners. However, some social actions people perform in authentic interaction, proposing a joint future activity, for example, ordinarily rely on a speaker producing a multi-word utterance. Thus, the language impairment connected to aphasia may impede the production of such proposals, consequently hindering the participation of PWAs in the planning of future activities. To investigate (1) how people with post-stroke chronic aphasia construct proposals of joint future activities in everyday conversations compared with their familiar conversation partners (FCPs); and (2) how aphasia severity impacts on such proposals and their uptake. Ten hours of video-recorded everyday conversations from seven persons with mild and severe aphasia of varying subtypes and their FCPs were explored using conversation analysis. We identified 59 instances where either party proposed a joint future activity and grouped such proposals according to their linguistic format and sequential position. Data are in Finnish. People with mild aphasia made about the same number of proposals as their FCPs and used similar linguistic formats to their FCPs when proposing joint future activities. This included comparable patterns associated with producing a time reference, which was routinely used when a proposal initiated a planning activity. Mild aphasia manifested itself as within-turn word searches that were typically self-repaired. In contrast, people with severe aphasia made considerably fewer proposals compared with their FCPs, the proposal formats being linguistically unidentifiable. This resulted in delayed acknowledgement of the PWAs' talk as a proposal. Mild aphasia appears not to impede PWAs' ability to participate in the planning of joint future activities, whereas severe aphasia is a potential limitation. To address this possible participatory barrier, we discuss clinical implications for both therapist-led aphasia treatment and conversation partner training. What is already known on the subject PWAs use multimodal resources to compensate for their language impairment in everyday conversations. However, certain social actions, such as proposing a joint future activity, cannot ordinarily be accomplished without language. What this paper adds to existing knowledge The study demonstrates that proposing joint future activities is a common social action in everyday conversations between PWAs and their family members. People with mild aphasia used typical linguistic proposal formats, and aphasic word-finding problems did not prevent FCPs from understanding the talk as a proposal. People with severe aphasia constructed proposals infrequently using their remaining linguistic resources, a newspaper connecting the talk to the future and the support from FCPs. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? We suggest designing aphasia treatment with reference to the social action of proposing a joint future activity. Therapist-led treatment could model typical linguistic proposal formats, whereas communication partner training could incorporate FCP strategies that scaffold PWAs' opportunities to construct proposals of joint future activities. This would enhance aphasia treatment's ecological validity, promote its generalization and ultimately enable PWAs to participate in everyday planning activities.

‘So, it’s not necessarily about exclusion’

Trans-exclusionary radical feminists challenge transgender people (specifically women) from within a claimed feminist struggle. They exclude transgender women and instead claim they are men colonising women’s spaces. I present a conversation analytic and analytical membership categorisation case study of a national radio interview in which the spokesperson for a trans-exclusionary feminist political group debates with the host on the nature of trans women and their exclusion from women’s spaces. I show how the interviewee accomplishes trans exclusion in talk,, often without making explicit claims about trans women, by constructing both biologically essentialist and experiential distinctions between trans and cis women, constructing trans women as participants in patriarchal oppression, and by problematising a claimed redefinition of the category woman being enacted by trans women. This analysis highlights how transphobic (and specifically transmisogynistic) attitudes are accomplished in social interaction through sequential action and categorial inferences.

Language Policies and Linguistic Rights

Linguistic Planning and Policy (hereinafter LPP) focuses on overt and covert laws that determine when, how, by whom, and which language has been spoken, as well as the ideals and privileges associated with all of those languages. LPP researchers study the evolution of top-down and bottom-up policy documents, as well as their application and influence at the municipal, regional, state, and national level. Whereas the emphasis of LPP is on how effects are developed, enforced, sometimes challenged, non-linguistic factors are frequently overlooked. The ecological analogy grounds LPP research in the bigger social, economic, and language context. These frames and analogies are frequently employed in LPP research, particularly in new and emerging fields of study and discussion. LPP uses methods like conversation analysis, corpus analysis, and film studies on a regular basis. Keywords: Linguistics; Research; LPP

The spatial organization of hybrid Scrum meetings: A multimodal conversation analysis study

Bridging the physical distance between remote locations, video mediated interaction has long been an integral part of workplace activities. Hybrid meetings are instances of video-mediated interaction combining in-person and virtual attendance with some of the participants being co-located, and others joining from remote locations with real-time streaming. This study sets out to explore the ways in which participants co-construct space across multiple sites by coordinating their presence and participation in hybrid daily Scrum meetings. We draw on multimodal conversation analysis to closely examine video recorded data from hybrid Scrum meetings of a software development team. Our analysis shows how participants orient to multiple spaces and their efforts in establishing and maintaining visibility and audibility. The findings have implications for an understanding of hybrid interactions in workplace meetings informing future designs of meetings and collaborative technologies for hybrid collaboration.

Ritualized disbelief in Mexican Spanish talk-in-interaction

Abstract The present investigation is a conversation-analytic study that examines a particular type of informing sequence where the new information is received with a turn displaying ritualized disbelief. In this paper, I analyze a range of ritualized disbelief and news-confirmation turn designs in Mexican Spanish talk: I describe the trajectory that different ritualized disbeliefs have, the composition of the disbelief they display, and how news-producers deal with ritualized disbelief turns. I argue that a speaker’s knowledge about the matter at hand relates to the type of disbelief expressed in his or her disbelieving turn; that is, the social actions involved in this type of sequences show a relationship between turn design, epistemics and disbelief.

Exploring dangran ‘of course’ responses to polar questions in Taiwan Mandarin talk-in-interaction

Building on previous conversation analytic studies on question resistance across languages, this study examines Taiwan Mandarin dangran ‘of course’ as a response to polar questions in order to probe into Mandarin speakers’ methods of pushing back question constraints. Data consists of 159 cases from 232.5-h ordinary conversations and institutional interactions. Adopting multimodal conversation analysis and interactional linguistics, the study identified and analyzed dangran as a single response and as one of the elements in different response types. Findings have shown that respondents commonly apply dangran to indicate the undoubtedness of the matter under discussion, thus treating the question as unaskable and holding the questioners morally responsible in asking a question that contains the information they should have known. In contrast to “of course” in English, dangran does not always suggest a morality counterchallenge by the respondents (i.e., not the kind of person implied in the question). Regarding those responses where dangran manifests a moral concern, they tend to co-occur with a final particle a. Through multimodal analysis, these findings are supported by various semiotic resources utilized by participants in their dangran responses. This study advances the understanding of resistant answers to polar questions in cross-linguistic research.

Time structures in ethnomethodological and conversation analysis studies of practical activity

Time is regarded as the immanent dimension for the social experience. This phenomenologically informed perspective of time is built into the ethnomethodological programme jointly proposed by Garfinkel and Sacks as they set out to uncover social orders through examining the temporal sequence in practical activity. However, Garfinkel and Sacks took different paths from this initial proposal in their separate development of Ethnomethodological Studies of Work and Conversation Analysis. Focusing on different forms of data, the two programmes adopted different approaches to time and action in constructing the time structures in their sociological description of activity. However, the difference has seldom been subjected to discussion and much less attempt to explore a possible synthesis of the two programmes from there. This article attempts to address this gap by proposing a perspective of multi-layered temporality in social interaction. The analysis examines three extracts from a university communication workshop for students and explicates different modes of how simultaneous sequences can constitute participants’ action in situ: (1) simultaneous sequences by different actors; (2) simultaneous sequences by the same actor; (3) simultaneous sequences within a participatory framework. Contending the social actors’ phenomenological potential to perceive simultaneous sequences in different time frames, we conclude that the ‘situational time’ in EM and ‘conversational time’ in CA can be commensurable. Interweaving different layers of temporality into an ethnomethodological description, practitioners can better reconstruct a ‘reasonable total picture’ of social activity to manifest its complex, seen-but-unnoticed endogenous social order. Beyond ethnomethodology, the multi-layered perspective of time provides the basis for a holistic approach to time, allowing the enquiry of broader social time through studying social life in vivo.

Extending repair in peer interaction: A conversation analytic study.

Peer interaction constitutes a focal site for understanding learning orientations and autonomous learning behaviors. Based on 10 h of video-recorded data collected from small-size conversation-for-learning classes, this study, through the lens of Conversation Analysis, analyzes instances in which L2 learners spontaneously exploit learning opportunities from the on-task public talk and make them relevant for private learning in sequential private peer interaction. The analysis of extended negation-for-meaning practices in peer interaction displays how L2 learners orient to public repair for their learning opportunities in an immediate manner and in so doing, how different participation framework is being utilized to maximize their learning outcomes. As these extended repair practices are entirely managed by learners themselves, they yield both efficient and inefficient learning outcomes. Findings reveal that learners frequently resort to their peers to recycle the focal trouble words for learning opportunities, shifting their participating role from the on looking audience to active learners. By reporting the rather under-researched post-repair negotiation-for-meaning sequence in peer interactions, the study highlights the relevance between on-task classroom activities and private learning, contributing to understanding private learning behaviors in the language classroom and learning as a co-constructed activity locally situated in peer interaction.

Epistemic stance in Korean assessment pairs: The role of evidential and non-evidential sentence-ending suffixes

Studies in conversation analysis (CA) have shown that in assessments, various linguistic resources are used to express epistemic stance in ordinary conversation. In Korean conversation, although the evidential and non-evidential functions of sentence-ending (SE) suffixes are well recognized, little research has been done on their relation to epistemic stance and their use in assessments. In this study, using naturally-occurring conversation data and the CA framework, I analyze 59 cases of a speaker’s first assessment regarding his/her interlocutor and 49 responses to these first assessments (second assessments). I argue that in Korean assessment pairs, the evidential and non-evidential SE suffixes are used as a resource for expressing epistemic stance. The results show that 74.4% of the first assessments were marked with an evidential SE suffix whereas 71.4% of the second assessments were marked with a non-evidential SE suffix. Furthermore, certain evidential SE suffixes are used as a resource to convey a downgraded epistemic stance in first assessments whereas certain non-evidential SE suffixes are used to express epistemic primacy in second assessments.

Suspects’ opportunities to claim their legal rights in police investigative interviews

When interviewed by the police, suspects are to be informed that they have the right to remain silent and the right to obtain the assistance of a defence counsel. This article presents a conversation analytic study of how it is established in interaction whether a suspect wants to go through with the interview or end it by invoking their legal rights. The data is a corpus of audio recordings of authentic police interviews conducted in Norway. First, we present a quantitative measure of how often suspects are asked explicit questions about whether they want to exercise their right to silence and/or to legal counsel. Second, we investigate variation in the design of such questions, concentrating specifically on expressions involving a preference for one response option over the other. Third, we discuss formulations used while presenting the rights that may legitimise or inhibit a free and independent decision. The results show that suspects are often not asked to take a stance on their rights, and when they are, such questions often involve a bias towards waiving their rights. And although some officers explicitly inform the suspects that they are free to choose whatever option they like, others provide information about the interview that either presupposes willingness to talk or presents the option of waiving one’s rights as preferable to invoking them. These findings have important implications for the safeguarding of suspects’ rights and form the basis for recommendations to the police about how to give suspects the opportunity to take a stance on their legal rights.

Continuing assessments in online dating: Enabling relational development between potential romantic partners in WeChat conversations

Potential romantic partners often employ specific communicative strategies in computer-mediated communication based on their anticipation of future interactions. This conversation analytic study examines the practice of assessments used in WeChat conversations between potential romantic partners. We found that people recurrently mobilize the action of assessment to maintain or terminate their relationships. Especially, people tend to provide more assessments after an initial assessment, which we term ‘continuing assessment’. We show that continuing assessments are sequentially organized in conversational context between co-participants and are essential for relational developments. When potential partners aim to maintain or advance their relationships, continuing assessments are used to prevent a structurally integrated conversation from falling into closure. In contrast, continuing assessments are applied to put an end to the dialogue and to manage face work. Our study furthers the understanding of the communicative strategies of online dating.

Identifying Transformative Sequences in the Psychotherapeutic Interaction With Chinese Adolescents With Depression: A Conversation Analysis Approach.

Previous studies seldom touch on aspects of psychotherapeutic encounters between therapists and clients with particular disorders (such as depression). Little attention has been paid to the sequence organization of psychotherapeutic interaction between therapists and clients with depression in Chinese medical settings. By adopting conversation analysis, we investigated the specifics of psychotherapeutic encounters, specifically, the transformative sequences of psychotherapeutic interaction between therapists and Chinese adolescents with depression. We identified the fourth aspect of clients’ experience transformed in the Chinese psychotherapeutic interaction with adolescents with depression: cognition, and described how the sequential organization of therapists’ actions facilitates the momentary transformation of clients’ experience (i.e., the transformation of cognition, referent, emotion, and relation) in the psychotherapeutic processes. This study not only adds to the conversation analytic study on the transformative sequences in psychotherapeutic interaction but also sheds some light on the study of how therapists transform clients’ experience in Chinese psychotherapeutic interaction.

The chair’s use of address terms in workplace meetings

Abstract This conversation analytic study investigates the chair’s practice of addressing participants in multiparty meeting interaction. Paying close attention to the participants’ verbal and embodied actions, I examine 12 h and 30 min of video-recorded faculty meetings in a U.S. school district. I focus on how the meeting chair uses terms of address (e.g., first name, occupational title) during the meetings. The analyses show that when the chair uses an address term, she not only establishes a recipient, but also invokes and makes her institutional identity relevant as a meeting chair. In particular, the chair uses an address term while carrying out actions such as 1) opening or closing a topic, 2) managing the floor for different speakers, and 3) conducting relational work (e.g., welcoming a new member). The findings show that the address terms facilitate the chair’s actions that promote progressivity – between and within (a) topic(s) in the meeting agenda – and foster social solidarity by displaying affect toward individual participants. This study contributes to research on address terms and their functions, as well as to meeting interaction, particularly with regard to chairing practices.